Tests size up Level 5 NIC

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: JEFF CARUSO ON HIGH SPEED LANS
07/26/05
Today's focus: Tests size up Level 5 NIC

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Tolly Group compares NIC from Level 5 Networks with
  LAN-on-motherboard
* Links related to High Speed LANs
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Tests size up Level 5 NIC

By Jeff Caruso

Start-up Level 5 Networks is covering the bases with its new
network interface card, and now it has gone to the Tolly Group
to show that the NIC has a leg up on what it sees as its primary
competition: LAN-on-motherboard technology.

You may recall that I recently wrote about Level 5, as it had
teamed up with Foundry Networks to jointly promote their gear
for high-performance computing:
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan3835>

Now Level 5 has commissioned the Tolly Group to evaluate the
EtherFabric EF1-21022T, a two-port Gigabit Ethernet card that is
designed to take on I/O operations and free up a host CPU to
concentrate on other kinds of processing. Tolly compared its
performance to that of two different LAN-on-motherboard
implementations, one from Broadcom and the other from Intel. The
servers used were the IBM eServer xSeries 336 and the Dell
PowerEdge 1850.

Tolly ran the Netperf benchmark to measure unidirectional TCP/IP
throughput with various message sizes. The testing firm found
that the Level 5 NIC more than doubled the throughput, even in
single-port mode, when tested with small message sizes (smaller
packets are more taxing on a server). When both ports were used
in "port-striped mode," which acts as if both ports are one
interface, that throughput advantage was extended through to
large message sizes as well.

In a different test, Tolly found that the card was able to
improve application-to-application packet latencies by up to 10
times vs. the LAN-on-motherboard technology.

For the full results on all the tests, go to:
<http://www.tolly.com/DocDetail.aspx?DocNumber=205125>

The report is free and no registration is required.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Verizon joins managed security game
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan3836>

2. Future-proof your network
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan3556nllansalert3683>

3. VoIP security threats: Fact or fiction?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan3837>

4. The ROI of VoIP <http://www.networkworld.com/nllansalert3354>

5. Appliances replace DNS, DHCP software
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan3557nllansalert3685>

Today's most forwarded story:

Verizon joins managed security game
<http://www.networkworld.com/nllan3838>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Jeff Caruso

Jeff Caruso is managing editor of online news for Network World.
He oversees daily online news posting and newsletter editing,
and writes the NetFlash daily news summary, the High-Speed LANs
newsletter and the Voices of Networking newsletter. Contact him
at <mailto:jcaruso@nww.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Hewlett Packard
Discover the key to a more flexible and reliable network.

The HP ProLiant BL20p with Intel(TM) Xeon(TM) Processor. Deploy
and redeploy blades quickly by simply dragging and dropping
predefined scripts or images. Tap into faster and
easier-to-deploy blades operability today.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=108934
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storage encryption can help ease the threat of identity theft,
why one exec believes its all about the information and more.
Click here:
<http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2005/ndc4/>
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